Going green pays off for Taja di Leonardi, first class of Presidio School of Management

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, January 14, 2007

Photo: JOHN LEE

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�FACETIME01-14-2006_05JOHNLEE.JPG Taja di Leonardi is the owner of Ecohome Improvement, a year-old Home Depot-style resource for people who are environmentally-conscious. �She works six days a week at the front counter. �For Facetime Dept. in the Sunday Magazine. By JOHN LEE/SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE less

�FACETIME01-14-2006_05JOHNLEE.JPG Taja di Leonardi is the owner of Ecohome Improvement, a year-old Home Depot-style resource for people who are environmentally-conscious. �She works six days a week at the ... more

Photo: JOHN LEE

Going green pays off for Taja di Leonardi, first class of Presidio School of Management

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Ecohome Improvement sits between Lucky Bait Shop and Big O Tires, so it takes the right kind of eyes to see this as the San Pablo Home Improvement Corridor in Berkeley. The vision comes from Taja di Leonardi, 38, who graduated in the first class of the Presidio School of Management in 2005, and three months later opened for business.

On her store

Ecohome Improvement is a green retail store that focuses exclusively on ecological and healthy home improvement products such as paint, flooring, cabinetry and countertops. I've been open one year. It has exceeded my forecasts, my personal expectations and my dreams.

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Presidio School of Management is one of the first accredited MBA programs with a total focus on sustainability as it relates to business. Using business as a tool for social and environmental change.

On curriculum

The program is unique from most business schools. You start off as a cohort and you travel through all your classes together. It becomes a community. We met once a month for three or four days. The school would rent out entire retreat centers. As a cohort we would stay at the retreat center along with our professors. It was intensive, with planned dinners. In-between is the online component. It was a new idea and we took risks and it paid off.

On making it pay

In the program we are asked to look within ourselves to see how we want to affect change, as well as using good marketing sense to look for an opportunity. Looking at what I thought was the next trend in the green movement, I saw green building products. It's growing at 20 percent to 30 percent a year, similar to organic foods.

On finding her at work

I'm here every single day except for Monday. That's when we are closed. It takes up more than all my time because before and after the store is open I'm working on marketing strategy, following up with customers, creating relationships with vendors. During open hours my attention is entirely on the customer experience.

On customer satisfaction

I try from the very first contact to create a different experience than they would find going to a Home Depot or some other home-improvement store. My job is to focus on the experience they want to create in their place and start playing with different colors and materials.

On competition

We often get price-shopped against other flooring or cabinetry stores. Going green is not more expensive.

On the San Pablo Home Improvement Corridor

We looked at San Pablo as the main vein with stores that are three to four blocks off San Pablo. The Wooden Duck, Urban Ore, Ohmega Salvage, Metro Lighting and the Kitchen Sync, all have some element of green building, either reclaimed or recycled materials.

On it becoming as famous as the Gourmet Ghetto

I would hope so. That's our plan.

On practicing what she preaches

I live three blocks away. We moved into this home with Marmoleum floors, with recycled tiles in the bathroom and with bamboo cabinetry. We bid a little bit more because of those features.

On 'we'

My partner is my business partner as well. That's Dr. Nina Boeddeker. I met her working at Gilead Sciences. She is a Ph.D in biochemistry. She gave all of that up and together we invested the money we made at the pharmaceutical company and started this business together. We walk to work together and walk home together.

On the Presidio School of Management sweatshirt

They don't have one. They're supposed to.

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